Doubting Thomas

John 20:19-31

There are three stories of Jesus resurrection at the end of John’s Gospel. We heard the first one last Sunday as we celebrated Easter and the reading today tells us about the second and third resurrection appearances.

Thomas is not present the first time Jesus appeared. Thomas in Aramaic means “twin”. The Greek name for twin is Didymus. Thomas doubted what the others told him about seeing Jesus when he wasn’t there.  We are told how Thomas reacted when Jesus appeared again in the house where the disciples were meeting and said to him “put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.” Thomas knelt and acknowledged Jesus as Lord.

But we aren’t told anything about Thomas’ twin. Who is he? Or maybe she!  Those who seriously study the Bible often think that there are significant hints to deep and meaningful things in the way numbers and events and people are described and named. Could there be a suggestion or hint here that we, each individual one of us might be Thomas’s twin? How often, just like Thomas, does our faith depend on what we “see”?  Do we sometimes have exactly the same attitude as Thomas when we have a firm mindset based on “unless I see”? How often have we refused to believe until God does something to show us that we really should believe?

Today, our Gospel reading began with the disciples hiding behind locked doors. John tells us that they are locked into this room because of “fear.” We are not told of the reason for their gathering, except “fear of the Jews.” This is curious. Could they be hiding from embarrassment? Perhaps the Jews that the disciples feared were their friends and relatives who were now mocking them because their messiah had died such a humiliating death. In verse 18 (the verse just before our reading this morning), Mary Magdalene had told these men that Jesus has been raised. Was it this announcement of the crucified Jesus being seen by Mary that had made them fearful?

According to John, only the beloved disciple and Mary Magdalene have seen and believed up to this point.  

In the Parish of Surfers Paradise, many parishioners were “fearful” and were secured by gates and codes to keep intruders out. Our securely locked doors are not a problem for Jesus. That is the good news of Easter. Just as death could not hold him in the tomb, so our various locks and security codes can’t keep Jesus from getting to us.

Jesus comes through the locked doors. He shows his wounds and scars from the cross to them. He not only comes to them, but he reassures them.  He could have rebuked them for deserting him, but he didn’t. The disciples were probably expecting that Jesus would give them a huge dressing down for the way that they had avoided standing up for him. Yet, not just once, three times Jesus said “peace be with you.” He actually said “Shalom” which means significant peace and total wellbeing. The gift of peace is the constant link that connects those days with our time now. The peace of God beyond our understanding has been there for our parents and grandparents and all our ancestors. To know Jesus is to love him and to love him is to know that we are loved.

And here is the irony; the doors have not only been locked against the possibility of intrusions by robbers or government authorities, they have not only been locked against the unwanted knocking of family and friends, the doors have also been locked against the intrusions of the risen Christ. However, the risen Christ will not be locked out by death in the tomb, nor will he be locked away from his people, the church.  Our Easter message and our Easter joy is that crucifixion did not stop Jesus being present with us.  He is risen!!  

There is only one Christ, there is only one divine presence, whether it is in heaven, in the Eucharist, in the community dodging Russian bombs in Ukraine and the community rebuilding after floods along our rivers, there’s only one divine presence in the sick and poor, in our own being.

It is Jesus that we honour or dishonour in our attitude to any of these. It is contradictory to honour the presence of Jesus in our sharing of Holy Communion and to dishonour him in his people. The Christian’s respect, worship, love and service are directed to God, through Jesus, in the Spirit. It just doesn’t make sense to be selective in the way we acknowledge and serve God, as though God’s presence matters in one form or place but not in another.

Well, the Good News story we have heard today is that the ones who are locked inside in fear become the ones locked in the loving embrace of Jesus. Jesus “coming to them” transformed their fear to courage.

I don’t think that most people really intend to lock Jesus out and to stop him coming into our lives. We didn’t know that we were locking him out when we stayed away from church, when we avoided signing up for some study group. We weren’t deliberately trying to lock Jesus out when we found other things to do rather than read Bible and to pray. But, in reality, we were locking Him out.

We didn’t know that we were locking him out when we kept our faith safely tucked away within ourselves, when our religion became something that we practise only in the safe confines behind the closed doors of the church on Sundays, rather than showing that we are people of faith out in the world where we work and spend so much of our lives. But we did lock him out.

Now, I don’t want to end by haranguing you and pleading “please unlock your door! please let Jesus into your life!” I would like to end by being a little more upbeat. John didn’t want to end his writing in a negative way either. He didn’t want to end without bringing the resurrection miracle to those who read this good news.

In verse 31, the last verse Sherry Ann read to us today, John says “these things are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name”. “Life” is one of John’s key words.  (In writing his Gospel, he uses it 36 times). Jesus offers those who have faith in him abundant life and eternal life (Eternal is not measured in time but in value)

I would like to be really positive and I’ll end with a promise. Here is the good news! Just as the risen Christ was not defeated by the locked doors behind which the disciples cowered, so I promise you that the risen Christ will not be deterred by any locks that you have put on your doors. Our God is wonderfully resourceful, imaginative, persistent and determined to have us. Even in our lostness, even when we desert God, the first thing he does at Easter is to come out to get us.

I believe even that now, even in this service, here at this church, as you go about your daily life, God is coming out to get you. There is no guaranteed defence against Jesus. There is no way to prevent God from invading our lives.

He is coming! Jesus Christ is risen! Alleluia! Jesus Christ is coming for you! Jesus Christ is coming to you!

Hallelujah!